WACO, TX – In a social media-driven world, it’s hard to immediately spot the difference between fact and fiction. With National News Literacy Week, the News Literacy Project hopes to shed light on the importance of checking and understanding the difference between a credible and a credible source.
Whether you are watching your local news station, national news, reading the newspaper or browsing through social media, there is a lot of information out there. Sometimes the truth can be stretched.
Kent Flemming is a recent Waco visitor. When he travels, he relies on radio as his way of taking in news. He sends away from social media. As a 65-year-old man, Flemming says he enjoys reading the newspaper and doing things the old-fashioned way.
“My wife reads the newspaper, and I read a little bit of it, but most of me are not on TV and it’s mostly the national networks,” Flemming said.
Facebook is its main social media platform. He only uses it to catch up with other family members.
“People will only post articles that you really do not know if they have any truth or basis, and we believe the fact check is great,” Flemming said.
Fact checking is of great importance in today’s world because there are many who can write, post and create what they want online. Sometimes the sites may seem legal, but in the end not.
Blair Robinson, 22, is in the right school. Because she’s a millennial, she’s on social media regularly, but knows how important it is not to believe everything you see.
“It depends on who wrote it and whether they seem to have the subject matter,” Robinson said.
With the growth of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, she has learned how strong the platforms can be for those who use them.
“I think social media has given a lot of people the outlet to write what they feel for, and that’s not always accurate,” Robinson said.
Others, however, have shied away from watching the news in general, such as Pete Farmer, who would rather spend his time outside.
“How do you know if it’s a fact or not, without really checking it, going through the facts? And you need to do more research to see if it’s a fact or not,” Farmer said.
Farmer says it’s too much work to decipher between fact and fiction, but it will actually check if things he reads or hears do not appear.
He trusts his family and tries to make them understand that the lies only spread from there if they give him false information.
“If they gave false information to the immediate family, then they spread it to me,” Farmer said. “What if I believe it, then I spread it, and I do not know that it is false. I believe it only because my family told me it was true.”
No matter how you consume news, these three have some tips for researching the right sources.
“Rely on the press, really the newspaper and reporters to investigate,” Flemming said.
“Take a little longer to do the research before you send it out,” Robinson said.
“Check your facts to make sure you are getting accurate information and that you are not spreading incorrect information,” Farmer said.
When you are online, websites with a URL ending in .org are often trusted sources. Local news stations are also considered credible sources.
Follow the News Literacy Project quiz to find out more ways to become newsworthy.
Visit their website on how you can practice and share the importance of fact checking.